Officer who shot Chris Kaba did nothing wrong, colleague says

Mr Blake’s former colleague, who asked not to be named and has since left the force, told the BBC’s Today programme that he believed a system similar to Army court martials would be more appropriate for cases such as this.

“Martyn is the most professional, assiduous, diligent police officer you will come across and he should never have been put in this position,” he said.

“He was on Kirkstall Gardens that night on behalf of the state. The state put Martyn Blake there that night and the state trained him to do the fearsome thing that he had to do and he should never have been named in the media.”

The former officer, who was part of Met’s MO19 specialist firearms command, said he had administered first aid at the scene and been involved in procedures that followed the shooting.

Mr Kaba, 24, had been followed and stopped by police because the car he was driving had been linked to a previous shooting in Brixton.

After being boxed in by police cars, he drove his vehicle backwards and forwards as he tried to ram his way free.

Mr Blake told the trial that he had believed one of his colleagues would be killed and he opened fire to stop the car.

Mr Kaba died from a single gunshot wound to the forehead.